Category: School (144)

Arrests included: Cecil Edward McClellan, a Kathleen High School (Lakeland) principal; three women who traveled to the area to make money in “adult entertainment” during the Republican National Convention in Tampa; and an Orlando man who traveled to Polk County with the intent of having sex with a child, according to a news release from the Polk County Sheriff's Office.

Cecil E. McClellan Jr., 49, solicited a female undercover deputy to meet for sex. He had also called and talked to two other female undercover detectives about paying money for sex, according to the release.

When McClellan arrived at the hotel, he wore a Kathleen High School football shirt. When deputies busted him, they learned McClellan is the principal at Kathleen High School, deputies said.

Courtney Lane, Markisha Moguel and Maleka Williams, all 23, told detectives they were “nude dancers” who traveled from Alabama specifically to find work in the “adult entertainment” industry during the RNC, according to the report.

Of those arrested, 25 told detectives they were married; 45 had prior criminal arrests.

Joseph Tiago Camara, 39, a Satasota County middle school teacher, was busted in June after a deputy found him with three boys, ages 15 and 16, inside a hotel room on Siesta Key with some party supplies —bottles of rum and 4 bottles of Four Loco, an alcoholic energy drink, an open condom and a glass pipe commonly used for smoking pot, reports the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

The teens reportedly told the deputy that the condom was used as a water balloon.

Camara told authorities he was a mentor to one of the teens, according to the report.

Your colleges are ranked among the nation's best of the worst — in terms of being the best party schools and the least rigorous institutions of higher education.

Go Gators! In June The University of Florida ranked as the top party school for the past decade, according to bestcollegesonline.org, reports the Orlando Sentinel.

Penn State University came in second.

Now Newsweek has ranked the nation's 25 least rigorous four-year colleges according to the percentage of applicants admitted, median SAT/ACT scores, workload and student-faculty ratio, reports Newsweek and The Daily Beast.

And, once again, the Sunshine State ranks prominently on this list.

Of the Top 25 least rigorous, here's the breakdown:

1. University of Central Florida
2. Florida State University
4. University of South Florida*
14. Florida Atlantic University
21. University of Florida

A School Resource Officer (SRO) at an Englewood high school bust an adult student, Gerald O’Rourke II, 18, after he was reportedly was caught smoking in the boys restroom, according to a news release from the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office.

O’Rourke was then seen removing something from a pocket and putting it in his left sock. The SRO searched the sock and found a small red baggie with the words printed that read “Stay High.” Inside the baggie were three opiod pills, the release stated.

O’Rourke allegedly told authorities he had taken the pills from his granny's prescription bottle and took them to school.

O’Rourke was suspended from school for 10-days with a recommendation for expulsion. He was then transported to the Charlotte County Jail where he remains on a $6,000 bond.

Dianne Atkinson, 53, a Volusia County middle school assistant principal, was busted for allegedly putting merchandise into a bag and then exiting Bealls department store, reports WKMG CBS News-6 in Orlando.

Atkinson reportedly returned all items, including a bra, the value of which totaled more than $469, according to cops.

After deputies received a complaint of possible drug activity at the home of David Groover, the principal at Partin Settlement Elementary School, they launched an investigation, according to a news release from the Osceola County Sheriff's Office.

On Friday, deputies conducted a sting which resulted in Groover providing an undercover agent with meth and GHB at his home, the release states.

When deputies searched his home they reportedly found meth, pot, GHB and drug paraphernalia.

Groover is charged with Delivery of Methamphetamine, Delivery of GHB-Controlled Substance, Possession of Methamphetamine, Possession of GHB-Controlled Substance, Possession of Controlled Substance, Stanololol, Possession of Cannabis under 20 Grams and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia.

Photo: Osceola County Sheriff's Office (June 16, 2012)

Get the DUHtails at news release from the Osceola County Sheriff's Office.

Danielle Harkins, a literacy teacher, allegedly told her former students of Asian-American heritage that they needed to rid their bodies of demons as they gathered around a fire near the St. Petersburg Pier, reports the Tampa Bay Times.

Cops say Harkins, 35, then told the seven teens to cut their skin to let the evil spirits out before burning the wounds to make sure the spirits would not return, according to reports.

The kids got cut and burned; Harkins got taken to the slammer — where she'll have a devil of a time explaining her actions to authorities.

You could say Chuck Shriner got a bit of a black-eye during his high school graduation ceremony: While crossing the stage during Bishop Verot's graduation ceremony, he paused, dropped to one knee, and Tebow-ed his principal, reports the Naples Daily News.

NFL quarterback Tim Tebow has been credited for this trend. He randomly drops to one knee and begins praying.

The crowd burst into laughter; school administrators, however, frowned on Shiner's spontaneous gesture.

His punishment: No diploma until he made a clean sweep of things by cleaning the school's gym, where graduation was held.

According to St. Petersburg cops, Larry Cornelius Stephens put more than three-ounces of weed and a scale in his child's backpack before dropping the child off at school, reports the St. Petersburg Times.

The 25-year-old dad reportedly then returned to the school's campus to get his drugs back, but it was too late — his child showed the pot to a teacher and it went from cash crop to evidence, according to cops.

Stephens allegedly told a witness that he needed to get the weed back so he could "take care of his business and take care of his family," according to records.

Heather Michelle New racked up a five-day suspension without pay and won't have her contract renewed for next school year after playing a profanity-laced rap song to her high school class in Sanford, reports the Orlando Sentinel.

One of the songs New played was Rack City by Tyga, a song dealing with drugs, sex and prostitution that repeatedly uses a disparaging reference to blacks and contains at least three dozen inappropriate words or phrases, including a reference to sex with a grandmother.

Deland cops say Nicole Torres, a second grade teacher, was caught on school security cameras stealing $28.55 — money meant for the March of Dimes' babies that was raised by the fourth grade class, according to WKMG CBS News-6 in Orlando.

Physical science teacher Laurie Bailey-Cutkomp, 47, could lose her job for putting a collar — the type used to prevent animals from licking themselves after surgery — on at least eight of her ninth-grader students as a form of discipline, reports the Tampa Bay Times in St.Petersburg.

Zephyrhills High School administrators found out about the incidents after parents pointed out photos on Facebook of the students with the cones.

Bailey-Cutkomp reportedly worked previously in the veterinary field, according to the story.

Celestine Jones Baker, 52, a Palm Beach Gardens middle school teacher, was busted after Fort Pierce cops saw a small bag containing a white residue fall out of her pocket and residue on her nostrils, according to an arrest report, reports The Palm Beach Post.

Hint: It wasn't chalk dust.

She was nabbed at a gas station after someone reported her driving erratically. Baker told the cops she had locked herself out of her truck. When she put her hands into her pocket to apparently look for the keys a bag containing white residue fell onto the ground, according to reports.

Cyber moms aren't luring you for some 'family fun sex' with their 14-year-old daughter.

It just doesn't happen in the real world.

Usually.

But what does keep happening are sex stings that nab dudes looking for sex with a 14-year-old, with their mom's approval, of course.

It just happened again.

Andrew O. Noell, 25, a middle school music teacher in Dunnellon, is accused of traveling to meet what he thought would be a 14-year-old girl for sex after soliciting a person who he believed to be the girl's parent to arrange for sex, reports The Gainesville Sun.

After getting a report of suspicious activity involving animals screaming, deputies arrived at the address and found Jose Otero, 26, skinning a dead turkey there which he claimed some boys had given him, according to a news release from the Volusia County Sheriff's Office.

Deputies soon found the boys nearby and also learned that a few rabbits were missing from Deltona Middle School’s agricultural barn.

After investigating the situation, the deputies concluded that Otero went with three boys, ages, 8, 11 and 14, to the school. The boys jumped the fence; Otero stayed outside, the report states.

The 11-year-old then allegedly used a stick to poke at a turkey in its cage before releasing it and then chasing it around with a hoe until he bludgeoned it to death.

After the 11-year-old tossed the carcass over the fence to Otero, he reportedly returned to the cages and, along with the other two boys, stole three rabbits.

As the boys left the school property and trekked their way to another address, one of the the rabbits died. So the 11-year-old tossed it into a nearby lake. When they arrived at their destination the boys stored the remaining two rabbits and Otero started cutting up the turkey, according to the release.

Deputies recovered the two living rabbits and returned them to the school.

Otero was charged with burglary and petty theft and transported jail.

The elementary school student, along with the middle school student, were both charged with burglary, grand theft and animal cruelty.

The 8-year-old boy was not charged because deputies believed he had been coerced by the others, according to records.

Lee County deputies had been getting reports since last summer about a man who exposed himself to and masturbated in front of students at a Lehigh Acres bus stop, reports The News-Press in Fort Myers.

On Monday, James Michael Gregory, 34, the suspected drive-by masturbator, was allegedly seen at the bus stop by several boys as he drove by naked from the waist down while masturbating, according to the report.

A student claimed that Joan Bannister, a 53-year-old Eustis Middle School math teacher, approached her with a ruler and told her that she wanted to measure her exposed "boobage" to check if she were within dress code, reports the Orlando Sentinel.

Angelica Cruikshank, a Pasco County school teacher, is sporting a long face now that she is facing termination.

A district investigation showed that she had "improperly" gained access to students' Facebook accounts to find out whether they had made any nasty comments about her, reports the Tampa Bay Times in St. Petersburg.

Cruikshank reportedly signaled a student to the front of the classroom and told the girl to sign onto her Facebook account — on Cruikshank's personal cellphone — so that the teacher could go to the Facebook group to see what was said about her, according to the report.

And that's not all she did to get in her students' faces.

Find out all about it and get the DUHtails at the Tampa Bay Times in St. Petersburg.

A Deltona middle school student was caught on the bus surveillance video lighting her own hair and another student's hair on fire. The girl reportedly started the lighter more than 20 times and also tried to light a book bag on fire, reports WKMG News-6 in Orlando.

And that's not all that happened during this school bus ride.

One student also punched another student about a dozen times during the same ride home, according to school board report.

The Duval County School Board voted unanimously to fire an elementary school speech therapist who told a judge that he used a school district laptop to visit sexually explicit adult websites and personal ads soliciting sex — all during school hours while he was working, reports The Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville.

The judge, however, disagreed with the school board's actions and recommended that the school district speech therapist keep his job but undergo ethics training.

A student at a New Port Richey middle school is accused of taking a can of Old Spice body spray and lighting the spray stream on fire. The student then allegedly aimed the fire stream at another student in a restroom, reports WTSP News-10 in Tampa Bay.

The special education student's pants were briefly set afire and hair on his arm was singed, according to the report.

The school resource officer told WTSP News that the attack on the special education student was not targeted, it was done more for "entertainment."

Five girls and two boys, between the ages of 12 through 15, beat a 13-year-old girl so badly she was left unconscious and had to be taken to a hospital Friday morning while on a school bus in Ocala, according to Sheriff’s Office reports, reports the Ocala Star-Banner.

It was the girl's first day riding the school bus and none of the children would allow her to sit down. She suffered a concussion, severe bruising on her head and muscle spasms, according to the report.

Earlier this week a Collier County judge ruled to dismiss a second-degree murder charge against Jorge Saavedra, who was 14 at the time, in the stabbing death of another 16-year-old student on the grounds that Saavedra acted in self-defense under Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law when he was bullied on a school bus last January in Golden Gate Estates, according to the Naples Daily News.

Will this ruling put the brakes on school bus bullying?

Or will more kids be packing a pocket knife on their way to school in case they get bullied?

Carl Richardson, a A Lehigh Acres Middle School math teacher since 2009, was busted on charges of selling and possessing cocaine for allegedly selling $200 worth of crack cocaine to an informant during undercover operation earlier this year, reports WZVN ABC News-7 in Fort Myers.

Detectives say Richardson sold undercover agents crack on three separate occasions through a chain-linked fence at an apartment complex.

If he does the math, he's now looking at some serious time behind a barbed-wire fence.

Last year a squirrel set off a fire alarm that led to the evacuation of a Ellenton elementary school. The Manatee County School Board is still talking about it during current budget meetings.
reports the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

The district maintenance department used the rogue rodent as an example to justify why they need to squirrel away some money for a contingency fund — to point out almost anything can happen.

Donnie Riggins, an Altamonte Springs school resource officer, made inappropriate comments to students during the morning announcements by using a teacher's name in a hypothetical situation about the trouble teens could get in when they drink and drive, according to school officials said, reports WFTV ABC News-9 in Orlando.

A 9-year-old female student at the school is accused of spitting at staff members, jumping off the school bus, then throwing large broken pieces of asphalt at the bus. One piece struck the windshield, reports The News-Press in Fort Myers.

The student then allegedly threw a metal chair at a deputy who was called to the scene.

The camera was on when last June when 4-foot-7-in.Hattie Yvonne Branch, a 70-year-old former school-bus attendant, confronted the much taller 14-year-old boy, striking, biting and wrestling with him, reports the Orlando Sentinel.

Lakeland Senior High School teen contends that although he had threatened and cursed at Branch in the past, he had not provoked her on the day of the attack.

What do Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton, Pamela Anderson and Natalie Santagata, a fifth-grade elementary school teacher in Port Charlotte, have in common?

Answer: Their private sex tapes got leaked.

Santagata was fired after the Charlotte County School District office received photos and five videos of her performing graphic sex acts and smoking what appeared to be pot, reports the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

Similar packets were also mailed to other teachers and parent at the school where she taught.

Jose Alfonso Zepeda, a 38-year-old math teacher in Key Largo, turned himself in on Thursday, after a female student alleged he touched her inappropriately last May, according to a release from the Monroe County Sheriff's Office.

The girl, 12, was having trouble in the class and Zepeda would have the girl sit next to his desk during class, to help her with her math, according to Major Crimes Detective Jason Madnic.

Other details of the release:
The girl told investigators that on May 9th, Zepeda put his hand on her knee and then moved his hand up her thigh until he reached an area close to her groin area. At that point, the girl said she pushed his hand away. But the following day, she said he put his hand on her thigh again. This time, she said he looked down at his groin, then at her, then at his groin again.

That is when the girl said she noticed he had a bulge in his pants.

After this incident, she did not return to his class and told her sister what happened. The girl's family notified the Department of Children and Families Abuse Hotline about the incident.

Zepeda admitted in an interview with a detective that he touched the girl’s leg “many times”. However he denied that his intentions were ever sexual in nature.

The detective then interviewed students in the class and three of them told him they’d seen Zepeda touch her leg in class, according to the release.

A Vero Beach middle school custodian is accused of having booze in a Powerade bottle inside his lunch box and urinating in the custodian closet, reports Will Greenlee in his Off the Beat blog for TCPalm.com in Stuart.

The custodian also allegedly had a a run-in with a teacher in which he slurred his speech and said inappropriate comments, according to the report.

This school custodian must clean up his act.

Get the DUHtails and arrest affidavit at Will Greenlee's Off the Beat blog for TCPalm.com in Stuart.

Shawn Loftis worked as a sub for the Miami-Dade school district — until a principal discovered he had a dual career path: In addition to his teaching gig he also created the “World of Men” film series, reports The Miami Herald.

As first reported on the The Miami New Times Riptide 2.0 blog, Loftis, 36, was fired in March after school administrators learned that there were nude pictures of him on the internet.

At an administrative hearing, Loftis was told his firing was just because he was expected to conduct himself, both in their employment and in the community, in a manner that will reflect credit upon themselves and the school system.

Tampa police officers arrested 17-year-old Jared Michael Cano, an expelled student, who was planning to attack specific school administrators as well as any nearby students on opening day next week, reports WTSP News-10 in Tampa Bay.

Police found materials to make pipe bombs, including a fuel source, shrapnel, plastic tubing and timing and fusing devices.

A favorite Facebook quote of Cano's: ‘Lessons not learned in blood are soon forgotten.’

Vernita Coleman, an assistant principal of Oceanway Middle School in Jacksonville was collared on a charge of animal cruelty in connection with disciplining her dog, reports WJXT News-4 in Jacksonville.

Avalon Middle School (Escambia County) Principal Steven Fred McHenry's was arrested after he allegedly exposed himself and masturbated to an undercover police officer at a Pensacola park, reports the Pensacola News Journal.

McHenry, 39, was wearing a pair of "extremely tight spandex pants," according to the arrest report.

North Port High School Principal George Kenney — also a certified hypnotist — had been working with students using hypnotism to help them focus on academics and athletics.

Now his practice of using hypnosis is under fire.

All because there were some serious and questionable results: A recently released Sarasota County School District investigative report acquired by the Herald-Tribune showed Kenney hypnotized three students this year — after which two of the students committed suicide, and the third was killed in a car accident, reports the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

This principal has admitted to hypnotizing about 35 students plus the softball, volleyball and baseball teams, college athletes and adults in individual sessions at the school.

The ACLU of Florida has sued the Collier County School Board, saying it failed to answer its repeated requests for public records about ten North Naples middle school students who held a “Kick-a-Jew Day” in November 2009.

The students imitated an episode of “South Park,” where kids held a “Kick a Ginger Day” and kicked red-haired students.

A Collier County judge on Wednesday will allow a lawsuit against the Collier County School Board to continue, but only if the ACLU of Florida amends its complaint, reports the Naples Daily News.

The ACLU did not want the students' names — just the disciplinary action taken, if any.

The School Board, however, contends the disciplinary records are confidential.

The president of the ACLU’s Collier County Chapter disagreed. He said student privacy would not be violated because the ACLU simply wanted to see what discipline the students received. Once the students' names were redacted, he said, the documents were no longer confidential.

The judge had an issue with the way the complaint was written.

“You say records and later on documents. Records have different meanings than documents,” the judge said.

An 8-year-old boy was participating in an after school program at Osteen Elementary School in Volusia County reportedly stabbed a teacher with a pencil Friday during a tirade, reports WKMG News-6 in Orlando.

Kelleen Long, 47, the teacher did not need medical assistance but wants to file charges against the boy.

The boy's mother told school authorities that he is taking fish oil to control his anger, according to the Sheriff's Office.

A teacher at Allamanda Elementary School received an end-of-the-year gift from one of her students on Tuesday: a loaded .22-caliber handgun, reports The Palm Beach Post.

It appears that the 8-year-old girl's grandmother brought a boxed present of toiletries to the teacher at the Palm Beach Gardens school, unaware that the gun was in the box, according to a statement from the district.

Transgender teen Andrew Viveros, 17, a graduating senior at McFatter Technical High School in Davie, was crowned prom queen on Friday at the Hyatt Regency Pier 66 in Fort Lauderdale.
reports the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

Viveros said some students campaigned against him but others praised him for his courage.

"It's a big stepping stone," Viveros told the Sun-Sentinel. "People can see it's finally OK to be who you are and do what you want no matter how different you are."

Damon Crosby, a homeless man, was arrested Monday after a school resource officer at Lake City Middle School in Columbia County found several pot plants growing in a wooded area on school property, reports WJXT News-4 in Jacksonville.

The 33-year-old homeless man was arrested Monday after a school resource officer at Lake City Middle School in Columbia County found several pot plants growing in a wooded area on school property.

Detectives used surveillance of the area to catch Crosby caring for his cash crop — 9 pot plants estimated to be worth more than $5,000.

An 13-year-old Osceola County middle school student was booked into the a juvenile detention center without bond after he drugged his teacher's cup of coffee after she allegedly yelled at him in class, reports the Orlando Sentinel.

The arrest report showed the 0.2 mg pill of clonidine — a medication prescribed for treating high-blood pressure or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) — caused Discovery Intermediate teacher Danielle Jones on Monday to become "nauseous, very thirsty and [she] couldn't keep her eyes open," according to the arrest report.

The boy said three students witnessed him drugging his teacher's coffee. The word quickly spread around the school.

Sandra E. Hadsock, 64, an art teacher at Central High in Brooksville, was arrested Wednesday following accusations she punched a male student in the face after he had called her several obscene names, reports Hernando Today in Brooksville.

The 5-ft-5-in. 200-lb. Hadsock had had it.

She swung two or three times, finally landing the student a blow in his face.

Maribel Gomez, 35, was arrested Monday morning in Pompano Beach after witnesses told deputies that she flashed her headlights in the view of a group of children who where waiting for a school bus, reports the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

Additionally, according to the document, a 10-year-old witness told the deputy he saw Gomez ‘with her breasts fully exposed,’ and heard her ask, ’Are you ready?‘

The affidavit does not explain why Gomez, from Tamarac, was in the area.

But she's not the only Floridian that, for some inexplicable reason, recently felt the compulsion to expose themselves to passing school buses with kids.

When Bartow police pulled over 33-year-old Bradley Gummow, an 11th and 12th grade teacher at Bartow High School, for a traffic stop late Tuesday morning, they say they saw a plastic bag in his mouth, reports WTSP News-10 in Tampa Bay.

But Gummow wasn't talking.

So they used a surefire method to get him to open his mouth: They tased him.

On April 14th, after 10-year-old Zakiya Grier finished her FCAT at Ippolitio Elementary in Brandon, the 5th grader says a friend gave her a piece of gum to chew during recess. When her teacher asked her to throw it out, she didn't listen, reports WTSP News-10 in Tampa Bay.

Zakiya says that's when her teacher sprayed her face with water and yelled at her.

A Hillsborough School District says the teacher, Christina Sawyer, has a clean record but exercised poor judgment on this occassion.

Robert E. Burns, 56, an instructional assistant at Endeavour Elementary Magnet School in Cocoa, is accused of slamming a special-needs child into a chair and pinning her there fter she refused to get off the floor, reports WKMG News in Orlando.

The girl wasn't able to move her hands or arms, the police report stated.

Then Burns went even further.

He sat in another chair behind the child and pulled it against the child's chair, making it impossible for her to push away.

There seems to be a new emerging trend in the Sunshine State — adults mooning school buses.

It happened again on Tuesday afternoon.

A school bus driver for Indian River County schools spotted the woman later identified as Tammy Ann Roseman in the "hot pink" pants. As the bus passed her, the driver saw her exposed buttocks in his rear view mirror, reports Will Greenlee in his Off the Beat blog for TCPalm.com.

Some of the elementary school students on the bus started screaming — even covering their eyes.

The 39-year-old Melbourne woman got her arse hauled off to jail by the Fellsmere police.

Roseman, unfortunately, isn't the only one that got cheeky with kids on school buses this year.

Anton Lamar Williams, 19, an Eastside High School senior in Gainesville was arrested Tuesday in connection with the theft of two flat-screen TVs after witnesses saw him hauling them in a wheeled trash can from a subdivision, reports The Gainesville Sun.

Williams 'fessed up to breaking a window to get the TVs.

He told a deputy there was a reason he stole the TVs — he needed money to pay his prom expenses.

But Williams may no longer have to worry about funding a prom date.

With his arrest, it is unclear if school officials will even allow Williams to attend his prom.

David A. Kader, 53, a volunteer boys' basketball coach at North Port High School, has been arrested on allegations that he made sexual comments to two players and let some players watch pornography at his home during a sleep-over, reports the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

One of the players alleges "Coach Dave" sent him a text saying he wanted oral sex.

Coach Dave denies this.

Parents missed the first big clue: A sleepover at the coach's place for high school guys?

Police arrested Russell Evan Rochon, a 21-year-old man who worked as a "group leader'' at a Titusville after-school program on Tuesday, on accusations that he taped a crying boy to a chair and turned him upside down "as a form of discipline'' last year, reports the Orlando Sentinel.

It gets worse.

At some point, a student put the victim into a large trash can, and Rochon allegedly pushed the boy down so he couldn't get out of the trash can, the report said.

Sadly, there was a similar incident in another school: In April 2009 a teacher took an unruly Palma Sola Elementary School student to the hallway and duct-taped the boy’s lower legs, thighs, shoulders and arms, before carrying the boy and the chair back into the classroom.

Curtis Wendell Peterson, the principal of Caring and Sharing Learning School Inc., a charter school in Gainesville, was arrested Friday night after being accused of kicking a vehicle and punching a driver who was going too slowly, reports The Gainesville Sun.

The charge was interesting: Assault and battery during a burglary.

That's because his arm entered the vehicle without permission to commit a crime.

Sarah Wingo, 13, a vegetarian and a member of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, did not want to dissect a frog in her class at North Naples Middle School — especially since she felt she could do a virtual dissection, reports the Naples Daily News.

The 8-year-old boy hit, kicked and bit his teachers, threw a metal pipe and missed, broke a window, tore out computer wiring and ran away from Riverside Elementary School in Orange County, reports the Orlando Sentinel.

Now he has a mug shot and a rap sheet detailing five arrests since November, all on charges that stem from his troubled behavior at school.

In his latest arrest on Tuesday, he was charged with aggravated-assault charge, along with other charges, then handcuffed and escorted by police to juvenile detention.

Phyllis Musumeci, a Brevard County mother who leads a parent advocacy group for disabled students, asked "Why are they trying to criminalize an 8-year-old boy who has a disability?

"He's already got one strike against him. Help him," she told the Orlando Sentinel. "The family is probably struggling."

James Morris, 26. a former Volusia County music teacher who investigators said confessed to having a gambling problem, was arrested Wednesday in his Deland home on charges of pawning instruments that belong to University High School in Orange City, reports the Orlando Sentinel.

Things hit a sour note after six students had six of their guitars stolen at school.

Most teens would argue that parents were put on this earth to embarrass them.

This mother-lode of embarrassment would prove their case.

Laura Campanello, 43, was visiting Bayshore High School in Bradenton to meet with her son’s guidance counselor. While exiting the school she passed a woman whom she believed was showing way too much cleavage. When Campanello asked the woman, another school visitor, to cover up her chest area, an argument broke out, reports The Smoking Gun.

The school’s resource officer arrived on the scene and explained to Campanello that the other woman “was an adult and that I could not tell this lady how to dress,” according to a Manatee County Sheriff's Office affidavit.

The resource officer cautioned Campanello that he could not address the other woman's attire because she was not exposing herself, according to the affadavit.

“Oh then I can…just do this,” Campanello responded, reports TSG.

Campanello then allegedly “pulled the front of her blouse down reached in with both hands and pulled both breast out and squeezed them together,” according to the resource officer's report.

Former Mandarin High School head football coach Jason Robinson, 32, sent photos to his 20-year-old girlfriend's cell phone. Her parents, who did not approve of their daughter's relationship with the coach, discovered the photos. The girl's mother, Karrie Hubbard, then sent the images to the Mandarin Hig's principal and coworkers, claiming that Robinson was "engaged in an exploitive and manipulative relationship" with her daughter, reports The Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville.

The coach lost his job.

And now he's suing-mad.

Robinson has filed a civil lawsuit on Jan. 27 against Hubbard, claiming she improperly sent "highly personal" photographs of him to his principal and others that were meant only for his girlfriend's eyes, according to the suit.

The suit seeks damages for defamation and public disclosure, according to the Times-Union.

Robinson has since been hired as the head football coach at Ocala's Lake Weir High School, the Times-Union reports.

Four students from North Fort Myers Academy of the Arts are accused of making death threats on Facebook, reports the Naples Daily News.

Investigators say the students, one 13-year-old and three 14-year-olds, were seeking revenge against a fellow student who they believed to be responsible for the arrest of their friend, who had brought a gun to school the previous week, according to the Naples Daily News.

The parent of the student who was the target of the threats contacted the Lee County Sheriff's Office and told authorities about the death threats on Facebook. An investigation proved the bullied student had no involvement in the arrest of the student who had brought the gun into the school, according to the Naples Daily News.

All four of the students that made threats were arrested Wednesday on charges of aggravated stalking of a minor under the age of 16.

Guess this crew didn't learn from another incident last month — also in Lee County.
Lee County School District learned of a bullying incident involving two Estero High students who created false Facebook accounts that degraded a third girl. The pages showed the victim's head superimposed on the body of a young, half-nude child. The image depicted the victim about to perform sex acts.

A 15-year-old student was charged with arson after police said she lit a paper bag on fire and threw it in the trash can of a bathroom at New Smyrna Beach High School, reports The Daytona Beach News Journal.

When a teacher entered the bathroom minutes after the student exited, she noticed a small fire in the trash bin. A partially burnt, brown paper bag — with the girl's name on it — was found in the trash can, according to the News-Journal.

The suspect had a pink lighter, police said.

Her mother told police that she had gone to the school that morning to take something in a bag to her daughter.

When police told the girl's mom about the fire, the mother said, "She did it," referring to her daughter, reports the News-Journal.

The case of Alex Barton, who was voted out of his Port St. Lucie elementary kindergarten classroom about three years ago, has officially ended with a $350,000 settlement, reports TCPalm.com

A U.S. District judge approved the structured settlement, agreed upon in November, and dismissed the case Wednesday, documents show.

In May 2008, Alex, then 5 years old and in the process of being tested for a form of autism, returned to his kindergarten classroom at Morningside Elementary School after being sent to the principal’s office twice for disciplinary issues. His teacher, Wendy Portillo, then brought him to the front of the class and asked other students to tell him how his behavior affected them, reports TCPalm.com

The final straw: The teacher asked the class to vote on whether Alex should stay in the class or leave — sort of like the reality show Survivor.

Little Alex lost the vote.

Portillo was given a one-year unpaid suspension by the School Board, which she has since served. She has returned to teaching in St. Lucie County, according to TCPalm.com.

A teen at South Plantation High was arrested Friday after allegedly bringing two marijuana-laced cookies to school and letting two other students share one of his chocolate-chip treats,
reports the Sun-Sentinel in South Florida.

The case unfolded when one of the cookie-eating students became sick and told school officials.

The student who brought the baked goods was charged with delivery of a controlled substance within 1,000 feet of a school and possession of marijuana under 20 grams, Plantation Police Detective Philip Toman said. He is 15 or 16, and his name wasn't released because of his age, Toman said.

Even though drug arrests occur sporadically across the school district, it's not often that someone is arrested for taking drug-filled desserts to school, officials said.

A similar case occurred in Weston in 2005, when a Cypress Bay High senior was found selling homemade pot brownies for $5 a square at school, authorities said. The senior pleaded no contest to a marijuana-distribution charge.

Joe Rodriguez has donated tens of thousands of dollars to charities for at-risk and underprivileged children. He has helped keep parks open, bought uniforms for a high school football team and supported bands across South Florida, reports The Miami Herald.

But now an elementary school in Palm Beach County is considering returning a $20,000 gift because the district learned that the donor, Rodriguez, owns strip clubs such as Pure Platinum in Fort Lauderdale and the Cheetah gentlemen's clubs in Hallandale Beach, Pompano Beach and Palm Beach County, reports The Herald.

Rodriguez estimates his legal foundation, Rodriguez Charities, has raised at least a half million dollars, primarily through charity car washes and golf and poker tournaments. The events feature scantily clad women, according to the Herald.

Last week, Rodriguez Charities cut a check for $10,000 — the second time in two years — for a West Palm Beach school, Roosevelt Elementary, which has a high percentage of students who live in low-income neighborhoods, reports the Herald.

The Palm Beach School District was not aware of Rodriguez's occupation.

Citing policy, the district said it would ask Roosevelt's principal, Glenda Garrett, to return the money, Lambiet reported.

But district spokesman Nat Harrington insisted district officials haven't discussed the matter — and the decision whether to return the check rested with Garrett.

Another school that benefited from Rodriguez's charity is Blanche Ely High in Pompano Beach.

Several years ago, when the school was struggling to raise money to visit Washington, D.C., Rodriguez helped them, as well as the school's football team, which needed — and couldn't afford — uniforms, reports the Herald.

Since Rodriguez operates a legal business and a legal charity, Broward has no qualms about the donation, Broward schools' spokesperson Marcy Smith told the Herald.

Two Riverview High School students, ages 14 and 15, are behind bars and facing expulsion after confessing to vandalizing the school with used motor oil, said Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies. They admitted to the school's principal they poured used motor oil all over the walkways of the campus in the shapes of obscene body parts, reports WFTS-TV/ABC Action News in Tampa.

One of the oily marks, in the main courtyard of the school, is 90 feet long — FloriDUH readers can probably guess which obscene body part that one is.

So far, workers haven't been able to remove the oily images.

"They used kitty litter to absorb, a steam pressure washer, and that didn't work," Riverview Principal Bob Heilmann told WFTS-TV/ABC Action News. "Then they did a grinding. I hope the fourth thing is not to jackhammer it, because that would be an unbelievable expense."

The students were caught after other students came forward with tips, solicited by a mass phone call from the principal to every student in the school asking for help finding the culprits.

They've been charged with felony criminal mischief and face expulsion from school.

Sam Gottshall watched as his 7-year-old, Dylan, boarded the school bus to Parkway Elementary in Port St. Lucie around 7:30 a.m.

Around 1 p.m. that afternoon, Sam Gottshall got a phone call from a school official saying Dylan had spent most of the school day on the bus, reports TCPalm.com.

According to the district, a "child who attends Parkway Elementary School was found asleep on a bus after the driver returned the bus to the transportation compound."

For the next few days, Gottshall said he plans on driving Dylan to school, according to TCPalm.com.

"I was in shock and I was very angry that my child was left on a bus," Gottshall told TCPalm.com. "We all know what happens to kids who get locked in vehicles on hot days and everything, and I was thankful it wasn't a hot day."

On Tuesday students were gathered for an evening class in the theater and arts department at the University of South Florida.

But there was a little too much drama going on...

David Gerald Moseley, one of the students, became upset because the other students were talking. He asked the professor to remove the students, but the professor let the students stay, reports Tampa Bay Online.

After class, Moseley, 19, confronted some of the students outside of the building from a distance of about 20-feet. Without saying a word, Moseley then displayed a knife with a four-inch blade, before waving his hand as to say they weren't worth his time, according to a spokesman with the USF Police Department.

Nobody was hurt.

Three of the students alerted the campus police, who found Moseley later that night and arested him.

Moseley, of Ocoee, was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Students at Lincoln Middle School were hoping to get a good price for the 245-pound porker they raised to show and auction at the Manatee County Fair, reports the Sarasota Herald Tribune.

But it turns out "Lard," as students affectionately named the pig, is just not rolly-polly enough.

Lard was weighed to be auctioned at the fair. But when it comes to her future on a breakfast plate, fair organizers rejected her after an ultrasound of her backfat revealed she was too lean, according to the Herald Tribune.

So Lard is now back at the school farm on a temporary reprieve. The school still plans to sell her for slaughter -- when she fattens up.

Lard was expected to raise upward of $1,500 for the school, according to the Herald Tribune.

William Amory, 55, a second-grade substitute teacher at Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, became so frustrated with the classroom's ActivBoard that he reportedly punched two students and pushed a third, leading to his arrest Thursday on child abuse charges, reports the Sarasota Herald Tribune.

According to Amory's arrest report, the students tried to help him, but instead of gracefully accepting their offer, Amory threw the device's remote control, yelled and cursed at the students, then punched two students — ages 7 and 8 — and pushed a third.

One of the students reported that Amory punched him twice in the stomach, causing him to vomit . Another victim said Amory's punch caused him to go to a hospital emergency room for a chest bruise injury, according to the Herald Tribune.

As soon as the school district learned of the complaints, Amory was suspended from teaching, reports the Herald Tribune.

Move over, Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, and the rest of "The Plastics": There are two new mean girls in town!

Lee County School District is investigating a potential bullying incident involving two Estero High students who created false Facebook accounts that degraded a third girl. The two teen girls - ages 15 and 16 - were charged with aggravated stalking of a minor on Tuesday, reports The News-Press in Fort Myers.

School officials became aware of the page in April after being alerted by a parent, according to a Lee County Sheriff’s Office report

Some of the pictures on the Facebook page showed the victim's head superimposed on the body of a young, half-nude child and depicted the victim about to perform sex acts. Derogatory remarks, which were meant to portray the victim as commenting about herself, were posted next to the pictures, reports The News-Press.

A photo of a man’s genitalia was placed near her open mouth, according to the report.

One of the girls told investigators she and the victim used to be friends. She said they created the accounts because they thought it would be funny and "nobody liked her," according to The News-Press.

A judge sentenced the two girls to 21 day of home detention at their first court appearance on Tuesday. They'll be arraigned in juvenile court Feb. 8, reports The News-Press.

Just six years ago another Lee County student took his own life because of years of cynerbullying and phone harassment: Jeffrey Johnston of Cape Coral was only 15 when he killed himself after weathering years of bullying while he attended Trafalgar Middle School.

Joshua Olsen, a teacher at the private Greenwood School in Regency, near Jacksonville, has been arrested, accused of recording people using the restroom at Jacksonville's Regal Cinemas, reports First Coast News in Jacksonville.

The school’s website lists Olsen as a high school math and psychology teacher.

A boy told police he was in a stall at the theater when he noticed a cell phone appear under the stall. On Tuesday police said they spoke with Olsen, who allowed them to view his cell phone. Police found several images of adults and juveniles using the bathroom stalls, reports First Coast News.

Kimberly Brabson, 33, a former Tampa Prep swim coach has been sentenced to five years in jail after pleading guilty to secretly videotaping young girls as they tried on swimsuits at the school from January through September 2005, reports WTSP News in Tampa Bay.

Authorities say 19 girls, ranging in age from 12 to 17, were videotaped without their knowledge.

Brabson pleaded guilty to 10 counts of voyeurism, all misdemeanors. The 19 felony counts of promotion of a sexual performance of a child will be dropped. Prosecutors noted nine victims and their families refused to cooperate with prosecutors and the others wanted a resolution in order to avoid a trial, according to WTSP News.

The judge first ordered that all copies of the videotape be destroyed before sentencing Brabson. "We need to focus on the rights of the victims," said the judge.

Priscilla Maloney, a Palm Beach County elementary school principal, was arrested Tuesday on theft charges involving $14,220 worth of school furniture and other items last year, reports the Sun Sentinel in South Florida.

Accompanied by her pastor, Maloney surrendered to school district police at district headquarters in Palm Springs and then was taken to the Palm Beach County Jail.

Maloney, 49, led Plumosa School of the Arts in Delray Beach until mid-September. At that time, she was reassigned to a district office job while a detective sorted through allegations made in an anonymous complaint e-mail to South Area Superintendent Nora Rosensweig.

According to a probable cause affidavit dated Oct. 11, Maloney is accused of misusing her position to commit theft and gain a personal benefit.

The accusations state Maloney provided used school furniture, including black leather sofas and chairs, for Brown's Funeral Home in Lantana, which is owned by district administrator Delorisa Brown.

In a sworn interview with police, Maloney admitted letting Brown have the furniture on Aug. 1 but denied knowing that it was headed for the funeral home.

"I had no idea; I thought it was taken to be used at another school," Maloney said.

Brown told police that she was sure Maloney knew the furniture was going to the funeral home because Brown's family members carted it away from the old Plumosa campus on a Sunday.

The furniture has since been removed from the funeral home and tagged as evidence in a warehouse.

Maloney also is accused of the theft of these items: an $896 Dell laptop computer; an $802 saxophone, which has been returned; and a $619 LCD projector. Finally, Maloney falsified a district reimbursement form in November 2009 and received $137 for making purchases for a "reading tutorial" school event that never took place, according to the arrest documents.

The Boynton Beach resident faces six criminal charges: one count of organized scheme to defraud, two counts of grand theft, two counts of official misconduct and one count of petit theft.

Maloney faces a maximum of 26 years in prison if convicted on all charges, according to State Attorney Michael McAuliffe.

Maloney, whose district career began in 1994, was receiving an annual salary of $89,931. Her job status is undetermined as a result of her arrest, district spokesman Nat Harrington said.

A former Pembroke Pines Charter High School student scored what her attorneys call a victory for the First Amendment last week with the end of her two-year legal battle over her Facebook comments about a teacher, reports the Sun Sentinel in South Florida.

Katherine "Katie" Evans' three-day suspension for the comments will be wiped from her school record as part of a settlement agreement reached in her federal lawsuit against her high school principal. In addition, she will receive $15,000 in legal fees and $1 in nominal damages, her attorneys said.

Evans was suspended in November 2007 after her principal, Peter Bayer, learned she had created a Facebook group describing her Advanced Placement English teacher as "the worst teacher I've ever met." Bayer deemed the honor student's actions as "cyberbullying/harassment (of) a staff member" and placed her in a less rigorous English class, according to Evans' federal lawsuit.

With the legal support of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, Evans sued Bayer in late 2008, arguing her First Amendment right to free speech had been violated with the school's sanctions. The lawsuit became one of a growing number of cases across the nation raising questions of where a school's authority begins and ends when it comes to students' speech on the Internet.

Seminole County deputies arrested 47-year-old Barbara Williams, a custodian at a Sanford elementary school, on charges that she stole Christmas presents from the school principal's office, reports the Orlando Sentinel.

Deputies said Williams was caught on surveillance video entering the office of the elementary school and removing two bags of wrapped presents.

Investigators said she admitted taking the presents "and giving them to needy families."

When East River High School in Orange County held a pep rally for its football game against University High this fall, students found some unusual strings attached: They were charged $2 each to attend the rally during school hours, and those who wouldn't or couldn't pay had to sit in a study hall or go home early, reports the Orlando Sentinel.

Russ Martin, the father of an East River student, said he didn't like seeing his son miss chemistry class for a pep rally, but he also objected to what he called a fundraising "shakedown."

Martin has School Board policy on his side. Rules prohibit schools from charging students for fundraising events during the school day, and tonight the School Board plans to approve new versions of two policies to clarify the do's and don'ts of school fundraising.

"The minute you bring a child out of instructional time, and you're charging, that would be a violation of the policy," said School Board attorney Woody Rodriguez. An event that charges admission would be allowed before or after school.

Douglas Ralph, East River's principal, said Monday that he was not aware of the restriction against charging admission during school hours. The rally raised more than $2,000 for the Student Government Association, and the group used $350 of the money for the homecoming court to ride in a convertible Corvette in a parade.

After Martin complained, Rodriguez's office told the school to refund students' money. About half of the 2,000 students at the east Orange County school had paid to attend, and the Student Government Association returned about $200 to students who asked.

Rodriguez said he hasn't heard any other complaints, but East River isn't the only school to blur the line between fundraising and class time.

At Blankner Elementary School in Orlando this fall, students who didn't raise enough for the Parent Teacher Student Association were excluded from a show during school hours, parents said.

The Miami-Dade school district thought it was purchasing three new golf carts for South Dade Senior High School. But what it really got was three used golf carts, some of which had logged more than a thousand miles at an Orlando golf course, reports The Miami Herald.

The school system buys golf carts to help principals, security monitors and maintenance workers get around on large campuses.

On Thursday, the company that sold the carts was charged with one count of grand theft, the school system's inspector general said.

The Dade Equipment Maintenance Corp. agreed to pay restitution of $17,379 plus an additional $5,000 to cover the costs of the district's investigation.

The company can not seek any contracts with the school system for the next three years.

The Inspector General's Office later discovered that Dade Equipment had purchased the used carts from a golf course and then sold them to the district.

In a statement, State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle called the case "an egregious example of fraud."

Samara L. Seward, 32, a woman dubbed the "Buxom Bandit," was arrested Friday. She is accused of stealing wallets, cash, checks and credit cards earlier this week from four Leon County schools by posing as a visitor, reports the Tallahassee Democrat.

A Leon County woman heard about the thefts and thought they sounded similar to cases in Broward County. She forwarded a newspaper article on the Broward County case to the chief of security for Leon County Schools, reports the Tallahassee Democrat.

Seward had been arrested in July on charges that she stole teachers' wallets throughout Broward County and fraudulently used their ID and credit cards, according to a Broward County Sheriff's Office news release.

Seward is also convicted of targeting teachers in Martin County for identity theft. She was released from prison in May. Detectives confirmed that Seward is wanted for thefts in Deerfield Beach, North Lauderdale and Pembroke Pines, reports the Tallahassee Democrat.

"We're dealing with a professional," John Hunkiar, chief of security for Leon County Schools, told the Tallahassee Democrat. "She has a very thorough repertoire of bypassing people and trying to blend in and look normal."

The Broward County School Board took the rare step last week of firing a Coconut Creek High School science teacher accused of using profanity repeatedly in front of students, reports the Sun Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale.

Paul Kushch, 41, a 10-year veteran of the school district who is white, was accused of using the N-word and other profanity during a pep talk to the school's mostly black football team in 2008.

He was given a warning after the incident.

Then, on May 8, 2009, he accused one student of acting like a "git" (gangster-in-training) and told a group of students to "get your a---- inside," describing them as "babies" still nursing.

Kushch, who gained a reputation as a motivator when the school was fighting back from a bruising F grade in 2008, acknowledged using "poor judgment" and repeatedly expressed contrition.

The pep talk, he said, was a misfired attempt to boost the team's spirit before a big game. He said he used the N-word and another vulgar phrase while trying to tell the team members they should not allow themselves to be disrespected.

The mother of a teen who prosecutors say was attacked by football teammates at Dr. Phillips High School was arrested this evening on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for driving onto a school field the day of the fight, her husband said, reports the Orlando Sentinel.

Rena McCray Denson, 49, of Ocoee was released in a few hours after posting $1,000 bail.

Six students were charged last month with misdemeanors in a suspected attack on her son, which some have labeled hazing. Darrion, 15, told Orlando police he was beaten in the locker room Sept. 7, and he accused other players of throwing chairs at him, choking him and stuffing him inside a garbage can, a police report shows.

Rena Denson drove onto the practice field that day, complained to the principal and called Orlando police, the report states. She was arrested for driving onto the field, her husband, Porter Denson, told the Orlando Sentinel.

As he waited at the jail for his wife to be released Friday night, Porter Denson called her arrest a "miscarriage of justice" and said it was an act of retaliation by authorities for his public outrage over his son's attack.

"This is my punishment for speaking up," Denson said. He claimed the arrest was racially motivated and said he was outraged that while the students who he said put his son in the hospital were charged with misdemeanors, his wife now faces a felony charge.

"Let's look at the facts here, who did she put in the hospital?" Denson said.

Denson said it was not unusual for parents to drive on the field and that his wife didn't endanger anyone by doing so. He called the attack on his son and the actions of his wife "apples and oranges."

A couple of days after the attack, Rena Denson told the Sentinel that coach Dale Salapa said the football players got "out of hand" and "carried away." At that time, he said he could not discuss the incident.

About a week later, an Orange County school district attorney said a student he called a "primary participant" would be disciplined, but he did not elaborate or identify the boy. Student records, including discipline, are private.

Porter Denson last month criticized the charges against the football players as too lax and said he would file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice's civil-rights division. He said the school and police mishandled the case.

The extent of Darrion's injuries remains unclear. He was taken to Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children after the incident and fitted with a neck brace.

Darrion and his older brother, Martin, 17, no longer attend Dr. Phillips High. Porter Denson said Friday that his younger son now lives in fear of retaliation from the students charged in the attack.

At the jail late Friday, Darrion called the situation "just horrible" and said he could not believe that his mother was charged with a felony.

"These players are out there playing football right now, having a good old time," he said.

Photo: Rena Denson, mother of Darrion Denson, who prosecutors say was attacked at Dr. Phillips High School, is arrested. She drove onto the field that day. The arrest came on a warrant after an investigation. Six boys are charged with misdemeanors in the attack on Darrion. (Orange County Jail / December 3, 2010)

A panel of judges has issued a ruling in an unusual case involving a former school principal in Polk County accused of putting photos of girls' faces on images of a nude women, reports the Orlando Sentinel.

A three-judge panel of the 2nd District Court of Appeal in Lakeland ruled that such cut-and-paste porn is not illegal, handing a legal victory to former Scott Lake Principal John Stelmack, who was convicted of possessing child pornography.

In an opinion, a judge described such images as "unseemly" but said possessing them is not illegal because "the only sexual conduct in the images is that of an adult."

Photo: Former Polk County elementary school principal John Stelmack (Florida Department of Corrections / December 3, 2010)

The mother of Alex, an autistic child voted out of his St. Lucie County kindergarten class about three years ago, has reached a $350,000 settlement with St. Lucie County education officials, reports TCPalm.com.

The proposed settlement still requires a review by a guardian ad litem.

Back in May 2008, Alex, then 5 years old, returned to his kindergarten classroom at Morningside Elementary after being sent to the principal's office twice for disciplinary problems.

His teacher, Wendy Portillo, brought him to the front of the class and asked other students to tell him how his behavior affected them, according to TCPalm.com.

She then asked the class to vote: Should Alex stay in the class?

Alex, who was in the process of being tested for a form of autism, lost the vote, according to TCPalm.com.

Portillo, a tenured teacher, has served her one-year unpaid suspension by the School Board and returned to teaching in St. Lucie County, reports TCPalm.com.

She just wants to teach kids," Allen Sang, Portillo's attorney, told TCPalm,com. "[Portillo] is just very happy to be back in the classroom doing what she loves to do."

The principal at Seminole High School received an envelope smeared with excrement and containing a nasty letter, Sanford police said on Tuesday afternoon, reports the Orlando Sentinel.

A school employee was putting the 6-inch-by-8-inch manila envelope into Principal Mike Gaudreau's mailbox when she noticed a foul odor, said Sgt. David Morgenstern, a Sanford police spokesman.

Inside was a letter containing "colorful language talking about the high school principal," Morgenstern said.

Four or five people who touched the envelope to try to determine what the smell was were quarantined until the Seminole County Fire Department's Hazardous Materials team figured it out. Gaudreau wasn't at school at the time.

"We were concerned at first," Morgenstern said. "You could mask some sort of chemical. We wanted to make sure all the faculty and students were safe."

Investigators will examine the envelope for fingerprints. If the person who sent it can be identified, he or she will be charged with disrupting a school function, police said.

"There are no real charges for sending a poopy letter," Morgenstern said

Just before the final school bell on Sept. 20, an Okaloosa Academy teacher was hit in the forehead by a “forcefully thrown pencil” but couldn't identify the perpetrator. So the following day, a deputy reviewed classroom surveillance tape and identified the boy who threw the pencil, reports the Northwest Florida Daily News in Fort Walton Beach.

The 15-year-old boy told the deputy another student told him to throw the pencil and he “didn’t mean to hit her,” according to an Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office report.

The classmate told authorities the 15-year-old got out of his seat and called the teacher “Mr.” to imply she was a man. The boy then took his pencil in hand and screamed at the teacher, who looked away. When she turned back, the boy quickly threw the pencil and sat down “like nothing happened,” reports the Daily News.

When the bell rang, the boy ran out of the classroom laughing, according to the classmate.

Bet he's not laughing anymore: He was charged with battery on an education employee, a third-degree felony.

Ginger Parks, a 17-year teaching veteran, resigned her job at Plant City High School on Sept. 22. Parks taught English and also was the school's cheerleading coach. She resigned rather than face being fired after acknowledging she bought a "morning after pill" for a student and had inappropriate Facebook conversations with the student's boyfriend, reports Tampa Bay Online.

She gave the emergency contraceptive, often called the morning after pill, to a boy, who gave it to his girlfriend after they had unprotected sex following the October 2009 homecoming dance, according to TBO.com.

The girl's mother brought the matter to the attention of the Hillsborough County School District after her daughter complained Parks used profanity toward her during a chance encounter at a restaurant. The report states Parks asked the girl if she had been spreading rumors, reports TBO.com.

Parks at first denied any misconduct.

But then changed her story after a school district administrator told her he had 40 pages of printouts of her Facebook conversations with the girl's boyfriend — furnished by the boy's father, reports TBO.com.

Photo: Ginger Parks / Tampa Bay Online
This photo from February 2009 was taken after the cheerleading team won the Western Conference championship.

Early Wednesday, SWAT officials and others searched the couple's apartment in the 9400 block of Pinewood Drive Northeast after launching an investigation several days ago about alleged illegal activity in the apartment.

According to a police statement, they found "trafficking amounts of Oxycodone, at least $220 in counterfeit bills, mostly twenties, instruments used to produce the counterfeit money including computers, printers and copiers along with other drug related paraphernalia.''

Authorities said they eventually "yielded admissions from both suspects."

A statement said Gallagher has a "lengthy criminal history."

"We believe Ms. Webb not only had knowledge of his illegal activity, but actively participated in it as well." Palm Bay Police Sgt. Tim Zander said in a statement.

The school district was notified of Webb's arrest.

Photo: In a statement, police said they found “trafficking amounts of Oxycodone, at least $220 in counterfeit bills, mostly twenties, instruments used to produce the counterfeit money including computers, printers and copiers along with other drug related paraphernalia" in the apartment of 24-year-old kindergarten teacher Ashley Denielle Webb. (Palm Bay Police Department / November 10, 2010)

A 17-year-old Clearwater student has been arrested and charged with computer fraud after Pinellas County sheriff's deputies say he accessed the district's computer server and changed students' grades, reports WTSP News in Tampa Bay.

The student from Bayside High School was arrested on Thursday, after his teacher discovered the crime. According to deputies, Browder had stolen the password of his teacher, David Cross, by watching him type it into his computer during class, reports WTSP News.

Browder then used his home laptop to access the system and repeatedly change grades, as well as granting himself and three other students approval of class tests, which they had not taken, reports WTSP News.

The teacher discovered the problem when he could not access the computer after Browder changed his password.

Deputies say Browder admitted to the crime, and was taken to the Pinellas Juvenile Assessment Center.

A Hillsborough judge Wednesday ordered a 21-year-old Julious Threatts to get counseling in a mental health facility after the man pretended he was 14 years-old to play on the Tampa Bay Youth Football League. Threatts was also sentenced to community control and ordered to stay 1,000 feet away from schools and other places where children congregate, reports the St. Petersburg Times.

Threatts was arrested in August after a coach and school workers discovered he submitted fake paperwork to play in the league, even registering as a student at Webb Middle School in Tampa, reports the St. Petersburg Times.

"Sir, if this happens again you're going to prison," the judge told him.

Quentin Ferrer wore his backpack, with an illustration of a bikini-clad woman showing cleavage, to Richey Elementary School in Land O' Lakes for about two years without any complaints. Last week, though, another parent noticed the illustration and complained, reports Tampa Bay Online.

The principal agreed with the other parent: Now 9-year-old Quentin can't wear his backpack to school anymore.

Quentin's father, Fred Ferrer, however, wouldn't back down and sent his son to school wearing the backpack — against the principal's orders.

So the principal modified his order a bit, saying Quentin can wear the backpack to school, but once there he must bring it to the office. He can take his books and supplies to class from there and pick up the backpack again at the end of the day. reports TBO.com.

Quentin's dad then took the issue before the Pasco County School Board.

Ferrrer argued the cleavage displayed is no worse than other backpacks portraying cartoon characters such as Betty Boop. He also said that the backpack isn't pornographic and doesn't show drugs, weapons or violence, according to TBO.com.

The school district's dress code gives principals the final word what constitutes appropriate student dress. The school board did not want to change the policy so it did not get involved in the dispute, reports TBO.com.

Quentin's dad has vowed that he's not through with the backpack controversy.

"He will wear his backpack," he told TBO.com.

And he may even allow his son to wear shirts that he considers appropriate but school officials might find objectionable. "This will turn into a circus," Ferrer told TBO.com. "This is ridiculous."

The principal said if that happens, Ferrer's son will be asked to turn the shirt inside-out or be given something else to wear. Schools sometimes keep extra shirts around for just such instances, reports TBO.com.

Tyra Hays, 33, of Lake City, was charged with battery on a school official and disrupting a school function after being accused of attacking a school principal earlier in the month after her child was suspended from an alternative school, reports The Gainesville Sun.

According to the Lake City police department, Hays went to the Challenge Learning Center on Oct. 20 to pick up her child, who had been suspended.

The Challenge Learning Center is the county's secondary alternative education program for students who are failing academically, or who have learning disabilities or behavioral problems that cannot be addressed in a mainstream classroom, according to Columbia County School Board officials.

Witnesses told police that when Hays arrived to pick up her child, she stopped at the office and argued with Principal Deborah Hill. Hays left the office, but returned about 10 minutes later and was told by Hill to leave the school. Witnesses and Hill told police that Hays tried to push her way into the office and also hit Hill, who tried to defend herself. The situation escalated into a fight that was broken up by other school employees, who also called police, reports The Gainesville Sun.

Hays was arrested Thursday at her home and booked into the Columbia County jail.

Ava White-Smith, 44, of Bradenton, had been suspended without pay since May for the February incident in which she reportedly saw female students sharing an alcoholic beverage while driving them to Just for Girls, an alternative education program for sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade girls in Manatee, reports The Bradenton Herald.

The girls admitted to drinking and one student pulled a half-empty, half-gallon bottle of gin from her backpack.

White-Smith’s boss initially asked her to resign, but she refused, saying she never saw students drinking. During the July hearing, a Tallahassee administrative law judge watched a video recording from the morning ride to school that showed students “surreptitiously” sharing a drink and bouncing from seat to seat on the bus, some who did not wear their seat belts — a violation of the district’s transportation policy, reports The Bradenton Herald.

“Some students sang or spoke loudly and inappropriately, one student stood and danced to a lewd song on her music player, two students were excessively affectionate, and a general 'party' mood prevailed,” the judge wrote.

White-Smith said it was in her best interest to resign, according to The Bradenton Herald.

A special-needs student was in Assistant Principal Harold Weaver’s office at Merritt Brown Middle School in Panama City discussing a report that he had hit another student. The 11-year-old became agitated and swung a binder at the assistant principal, reports the Northwest Florida Daily News.

After the incident, Principal Charlotte Marshall, who had heard a commotion, approached the boy outside the office. Still very agitated, the boy kicked at the principal but missed, according to a news release from the Bay County Sheriff’s Office.

After working to calm down the boy for about 30 minutes, the school administrators allowed him to go to the cafeteria to have lunch. But once there, Marshall said, the boy became upset again and splashed his soft drink on her and then threw the bottle at her, hitting her in the chest.

Although no one was hurt, the principal said help was needed to regain control of the situation. Since there was no school resource deputy on campus, they called 911. Eight school resource deputy positions were eliminated this year in the sheriff''s budget, requiring middle schools to rotate deputies, reports the Daily News.

The deputy who responded took the boy into the custody of the state Department of Juvenile Justice, according to the Daily News. The 11-year-old now faces two felony charges for assault on a school official, reports the Daily News.

Would the presence of a school resource officer have made a difference?

Marshall said having a school resource deputy on campus could have been helpful in diffusing the matter before it escalated out of control.

“There’s just something about that person in a uniform,” the principal told the Daily News.

A DeLand mom, Penny Jean Kersey, who did not let her third-grade son attend school regularly, was jailed after the child had a high number of unexcused absences, authorities said.

Her 10-year-old son had 64 unexcused absences during a five-month period. Starting with kindergarten through second grade, the boy had 96 unexcused absences and was late 106 times. The complaint showed Kersey claimed her son refused to go to school, reports The Daytona Beach News-Journal.

According to WKMG News in Orlando, neighbors said Kersey would blame her other children for not waking each other up for school.

April Newcomb, the mom of a 16-year-old Palmetto High School student, was arrested Wednesday on child abuse charges, accused of encouraging her daughter to fight another student, according to the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office.

The girl told her mother that she was planning to fight another 16-year-old girl Friday in an empty lot. Mom showed up for her daughter's YouTube 15 minutes of fame.

The video showed the two girls throwing punches, pulling hair and knocking each other to the ground. As the two brawled, dozens of students can be seen gathered around, many recording the incident on their phones, reports The Bradenton Herald.

Newcomb can be heard on the video shouting words of encouragement as the fight went on. Newcomb arrived on the scene after the fight had already begun, detectives said. Mom told authorities she went to the fight to make sure it did not get out of hand and no one got hurt, reports the Herald.

Her daughter had sustained a skull fracture two years ago, and Newcomb said she was worried that she would get hit in the back of the head, reports the Herald.

Still, mom did nothing to stop the scuffle.

According to the report, the fight was over by the time deputies arrived. Neither of the girls was seriously injured in the fight.

And she's not the only Florida mom that is doing a good job of teaching her child to be a bully.

A DeLand mom, Penny Jean Kersey, who was arrested this week for allowing her third-grade son to skip school 64 times this year, got in the middle of a fight her son was having with another student a couple of years ago. She ripped the other boy's shirt, instigating the fight to continue, according to police. She was charged with battery.

Students at Riverview Elementary School in Titusville had a crappy day: They were told to clean the school bathroom as punishment for not ratting out a vandal.

The sixth-grade girls at Riverview Elementary School in Titusville came home and told their parents they were forced to clean toilets because someone had written vulgar graffiti on the bathroom stall. The graffiti culprit never came forward, so the principal made 16 sixth-grade girls clean it up, reports WKMG News in Orlando.

Takiyah Lewis, one of the students, told WKMG News that the principal told one of her teachers to make her clean the bathroom and even instructed her to clean the toilet seats.

Yucky!

The principal said the unconventional punishment came after other options failed. Graffiti and name-calling keep occurring, and it's aimed at just a few girls at the school — including Takiyah — but even she was lumped in with the punished, reports WKMG News.

Guess these students can expect more yucky days ahead: The principal said if a similar situation arises in the future, parents will be notified before a punishment like this is issued, reports WGMG News.

Hernando High School AP psychology teacher Jason Galitsky said he thought nothing was wrong with recommending "Heroin Diaries," a book by rock musician Nikki Sixx about his heroin and cocaine addiction, as summer reading, reports Hernando Today.

Galitsky also referred to a female student by her preferred nickname, "Tubby," stemming from a class discussion that involved her talking about being a vegetarian who is not overweight, reports Hernando Today.

And school authorities weren't please about comments he wrote in "Tubby's" yearbook either.

Along with recommending the book to the girl, Galitsky also wrote, "I'm really thankful you decided to come back into my life," and "Even tho I picked on you ..." reports Hernando Today.

The girl's father alerted school officials.

According to the investigation, the girl's irate father contacted Hernando High's principal, saying he wanted Galitsky fired, and threatened to contact the State Attorney's Office because the "Heroin Diaries" violated state law regarding decency.

Galitsky said there was no harm intended by the comments. He said they had a rocky start a few years ago in class but she warmed up to him and continued to take his classes, reports Hernando Today.

The school district removed Galitsky's personal website, required him to take an ethics course and prohibited him from being a mentor teacher for the remainder of the school year. Additionally they had the book removed as recommended reading.

The Polk County School Board has agreed to pay $120,000 to a family who said former Scott Lake Elementary Principal John Stelmack inappropriately hugged their two daughters, reports The Ledger in Lakeland.

The two sisters, who were not identified, will split $82,500 in a college trust fund. The remainder of the money will be used to pay court costs, lawyer fees and future counseling should the girls need it, reports The Ledger.

Former Principal John Stelmack was sentenced in July 2009 to five years in prison for possessing child pornography and 10 years of sex offender probation. He has since filed an appeal, which is ongoing, reports The Ledger.

An internal investigation by the school district revealed the sisters were considered Stelmack's "favorites," according to the attorney representing the school district.

Stelmack was arrested in December 2007 when a search of his office closet revealed five cut-and-paste images in his briefcase of a nude, 19-year-old model whose face had been covered with the faces of young girls cut from photographs, reports The Ledger.

The family's lawsuit stated the girls' faces were taken from photographs, and Stelmack put them on naked bodies to create pornographic images, reports The Ledger.

The settlement wasn't based on the pornographic pictures but the inappropriate hugging Stelmack had with the girls, according to the school district's attorney.

Lake Mary police said Renee Godby was picking up her child at Lake Mary Elementary School when she hit another car, reports WKMG News in Orlando.

Although no one was hurt in the crash, officers responding to the crash believed Godby was driving under the influence, according to WKMG News.

Her car was towed from the school, and she was taken to the John Polk Correctional Facility in Sanford, where she is being held in lieu of $500.00 bail, according to the Seminole County Sheriff's Office.

If you want to wear a short skirt at this school then you'd better be a cheerleader.

Seminole County schools' tough new student dress code designed to make students look more "professional" already has its first exception: Cheerleaders will be allowed to wear short uniform skirts to class on game days, as has been tradition, reports the Orlando Sentinel.

While some complain it is unfair, district officials have decided that the ban on short skirts on girls does not apply to cheerleaders.

The decision came after high school principals huddled at the start of football season and agreed to give cheerleaders an exemption to the new rules, which say "dresses, skirts and shorts must be at least mid-thigh or below in length" and nixes clothing that is "sexually suggestive."

The rules also ban "garments that are distracting" – and spirit-building distraction is the intent of having the cheer squad wear outfits to school on game days.

"It is tradition that they wear their uniforms on game day, like the football players wear their uniform shirts," said district spokeswoman Regina Klaers, a former cheerleader at Seminole High.

Klaers said the mother of a Lake Brantley High girl who was sent home for wearing a short skirt complained that cheerleaders were getting privileged treatment. But Klaers said the new dress code provides that principals make final decisions on what apparel meets the rules.

The School Board wrestled for a year over tougher dress standards for students, saying sharper dress would set an atmosphere for higher student achievement. School Board Chairman Sandy Robinson said she was striving for a "professional look," but the final code fell short in many aspects, including allowing students to wear flip-flops on their feet.

Klaers said she was uncertain whether other exemptions to the code would be made, but anticipated some. For example, she said, schools sometimes have a "pajama day" to build school spirit. Pajamas are specifically banned as every day wear.

Other items such as chains linking pierced noses to pierced ears also are banned, as are dog collars worn as jewelry and T-shirts that promote sex, drugs, alcohol, tobacco or violence.

Photo: Seminole High cheerleaders work the crowd before kickoff at a football game against DeLand in October. (Jacob Langston/Orlando Sentinel)

A few years ago, Marcel Williams, now 14, roamed football fields as a star running back for the national champion Flagler Junior Pee Wee Bulldogs.

But this year he's not seeing any football or school action at Palm Coast's Buddy Taylor Middle School because he's been expelled until January for making a crude taunt while keeping his pants on, reports The Daytona Beach News-Journal.

Although several kids were suspended for horsing around in the back of a school bus that day, he was the only one expelled, Marcel told the News-Journal.

The punishment does not fit the misdeed, said Marcel's father, Darial Williams, 43.

But "tea-bagging," as students call it, can be a gesture subtle enough that teachers may not even know it happened, or it can be flagrant — a fully clothed student rubbing his crotch in another's face, Katrina Townsend, the school district's director of student services, told The Daytona Beach News-Journal.

It would have been just another school discipline issue, except the taunted boy's father pressed criminal charges, which propelled it to another level.

And what Marcel called "tea-bagging," law enforcement officials called lewd and lascivious exhibition — a felony, according to the News-Journal.

The taunted student's father later changed his mind and decided against pressing charges against Marcel. But it was too late to stop the school district's disciplinary process, reports the News-Journal.

A school bus security camera caught the action.

School administrators said they had never seen such a severe, long-lasting "tea-bagging" as in Marcel's case, Marcel's father told the News-Journal.

A police report described the incident as lasting for "quite some time" before Marcel was "pulled off" the boy by other students.

But Marcel told the News-Journal no one had to pull him off — and several other students were doing it, too.

Marcel said the other boy was in on the joke, laughing and making mock sounds of disgust.

Marcel thought the whole thing was over when he walked off the bus. But the next day he and the other boys were called to the principal's office and suspended. He said that 10 days later, when he tried to return to Buddy Taylor, he was told he was trespassing, reports the News-Journal.

Meanwhile, he is attending "virtual school" via a computer at home.

Marcel is stunned. He told the News-Journal that when he was at Buddy Taylor there was a "national butt-slapping day" and a day to "pop girls' bra straps," which were relayed via cell phones.

Does the punishment fit the crime or does everyone need timeout for a tea break?

Former Venice Elementary School teacher Diana O'Neill was suspended for hitting her special education students on the head with water bottles, kicking one student and pulling the skin off the lip of another. O'Neill's behavior was reported to the district by support staff who were with her in the classroom, reports the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

The 47-year-old teacher was arrested by Venice police in 2008 on charges that she abused her profoundly disabled students. She was acquitted of criminal charges after a trial.

O''Neill, who earns about $80,000 a year, struck a settlement with the state education department: She would serve a 2-year probation, receive a letter of reprimand and pay a $500 fine. She would also have to pay $600 to cover the cost of probation, reports the Herald-Tribune.

The agreement must still be approved by the Education Practices Commission next month.

The district had tried to fire O'Neill, but an arbiter ruled she should keep her job because the district knew about her behavior but never disciplined her or gave her a verbal warning as required, reports the Herald-Tribune.

The arbiter did rule that O'Neill should serve a 4-week unpaid suspension, reports the Herald-Tribune.

In the meantime O'Neill is working in the district's records department as her case weaves itself through the state disciplinary system, reports the Herald-Tribune.

Photo: HERALD-TRIBUNE ARCHIVE / 2009 Buy photo
Former Venice Elementary School teacher Diana O'Neill listens to testimony from parents of former students as the trial accusing her of abuse began in February of 2009.

Where were teachers like Katherine Harris when we were in grade school?

Harris, a teacher at Bradenton's R.H. Prine Elementary School, could soon lose her job for allegedly helping her first-grade class cheat on the Stanford Achievement Test this past spring, reports The Bradenton Herald.

Harrris positioned students to sit side-by-side with their desks touching and placed high-functioning students next to low-functioning students as they took the test, reports the Herald.

Harris also allegedly told some students to re-work parts of the test if their answers were wrong, and even told students where they could find the answers to the problems they were working on, reports the Herald.

Two teacher’s aides who proctored for Harris during the test reported her.

Harris also admitted she gave some students higher grades than they deserved when confronted by school administrators, reports the Herald.

An Orange Park man was arrested in Clay County on Tuesday after he was found asleep outside a portable classroom at W.E. Cherry Elementary School, reports The Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville.

But this was no ordinary trespasser.

The sleeping man was David Scott Robertson, a sex offender.

Robertson, 45, was arrested in 2002 on lewd and lascivious charges for incidents in 2001 and 2002 that involved masturbating in the nude in front of passing Orange Park High School students walking home from school near a wooded area, the Sheriff’s Office said. He also was arrested in 2004 and 2005 for violating probation, reports Clay Today.

An assistant principal woke Robertson in the morning. Robertson admitted he "had been drinking ... and was walking home from a bar when he stopped at the school and fell asleep," according to the report.

Ottis Dawayne Ryan, 22, rang the doorbell at Little Pioneers Preschool in Wesley Chapel just before 2 p.m. Wednesday, and asked to be let inside.

Not only did school owner Susan Singletary refuse to let him in, she called 911, reports Tampa Bay Online.

And no wonder — Ryan had several tattoos on his face, including one under his left eye that reads "FTW," and a large eyeball-looking one on his neck. He carried a brown bag, according to a Pasco County Sheriff's Office report.

But somehow Ryan managed to get through the locked door. According to the school's website, parents have a code and may enter the school at anytime.

After getting inside, the intruder went into a play room and started screaming, "Don't listen to God. He is not real. Listen to Allah," reports TBO.com.

He screamed some more, "Don't feed those crying babies. Let them die!"

It wasn't clear how many – if any – children were nearby.

Singletary tried to distract him, according to a sheriff's spokesperson, by asking him what he was carrying in the bag. He took out brass knuckles attached to a multiblade knife, reports TBO.com.

When deputies arrived, Ryan was on his knees and appeared to be praying: "I am the supreme being," he told the deputies. "I wanted to cleanse the babies. I am here through God."

Teresa Volkman, who teaches social studies at Silver Sands Middle School in Port Orange, was fined $5,000 by the Florida Education Practices Commission for professional misconduct.

She was disciplined over a November 2008 incident in which she directed a student in a sixth-grade geography class to lead another student with a bungee cord used as a leash.

Volkman told officials the students were causing a disruption in the classroom and she considered it "a humorous way to calm the situation," reports the Orlando Sentinel.

She said in a written statement that she was trying to keep the students involved in learning by giving the misbehaving student's partner control over his behavior as they moved to learning stations around the classroom. She told his partner not to tighten the bungee cord or drag the boy, reports the Daytona Beach News-Journal.

But classmates said the leashed student deliberately pulled against the cord, leaving a red mark on the boy's neck, reports the News-Journal.

On a professional standards report, Volkman wrote, "I guess I have been watching too much 'Dog Whisperer' on TV," reports ClickOrlando.com.

About 40 students from area schools as well as a few parents were outside the Kirby-Smith Center in Gainesville last Tuesday afternoon to protest the school district's new uniform policy, reports the Gainesville Sun.

The new Alachua County School District policy requires students to wear solid-color, collared shirts next school year.

Their chant: "Hell no! We won't Polo!"

Photo: Erica Brough/Gainesville Sun staff photographer
High school students protest school uniforms along University Avenue at the Kirby-Smith Center on June 8, 2010, in Gainesville.

Clearwater High School next year will replace traditional textbooks with e-readers.

Though the school hasn't decided on a vendor, school officials are negotiating with Amazon Kindle to try to equip all 2,100 students with the 10-ounce devices this fall, reports the St. Petersburg Times.

Kindles are listed on Amazon.com for $259 a piece, not counting the cost of purchasing the electronic texts, which are usually cheaper than hard copies.

But John Just, assistant superintendent for the district's management information systems, said it's too soon to estimate cost savings, reports the St. Petersburg Times.

Dana Hill's daughter, Skyler, was one of 19 second-graders to receive a DVD of her second-grade class' digital yearbook last week.

But unlike the rest of her classmates at Crystal River's Rock Crusher Elementary in Homosassa, Skyler's copy was apparently swapped with a DVD from the teacher's husband's porn collection, reports Tampa Bay's 10Connects.com.

Skylar's mom says that her daughter and 12-year-old son popped the DVD in and saw X-rated material before turning it off.

Deputies filed a report, but didn't press charges because, according to Hill, there's just no proof the swap was intentional.

Mom is a bit angry the school hasn't disciplined the teacher yet -- and the teacher hasn't called to apologize yet, according to 10Connects.com.

She says she's also concerned about the DVD's content: schoolgirl-themed movies belonging to the teacher's husband.

Hill says he also never misses a school function, reports 10Connects.com.

An Apalachicola Bay Charter School teaching assistant placed tape over the mouths of five kindergartners as part of a classroom game, reports the Apalachicola Times.

ABC School Principal Don Hungerford said the taping was not part of any disciplinary action or a punishment, but was an entirely voluntary exercise. He said the children could remove the tape any time they wished, and that at no time were they told not to talk about the incident to their friends or family, reports the Apalachicola Times.

When the tearcher, who had been busy with testing matters, later returned to the classroom, she advised the paraprofessional to remove the tape.

The paraprofessional was quietly let go from her position in April for falling short of the school’s “expectations of good judgment, ” reports Apalachicola Times.

It seems the school tried to discreetly sweep the incident under pint-sized desks.

But a posting last week on Facebook by one of the moms involved ignited the controversy. The mom was upset that the school had not notified her, or the other parents, of what had happened.

Now the Florida Department of Children and Families has been called to investigate the matter.

Parents at Coconut Grove Elementary School are calling for the ouster of Principal Eva N. Ravelo this week after she told a parent in an e-mail to "eat sh-- and die,'' reports The Miami Herald

The controversy was ignited when Abigail DuBearn, a member of the school's Educational Excellence School Advisory Committee, or EESAC, had asked Ravelo and other council members whether student representatives of the committee "could be notified today and be invited to attend and participate'' at Monday's meeting.

Ravelo, 45, then replied to DuBearn's e-mail with the message: "Advise her to eat sh-- and die.'' Ravelo spelled the swear word like it appears here, without the last two letters.

Maria Orjeda, the school's reading coach, who spoke on behalf of Ravelo, said the principal meant to send the e-mail about DuBearn to her assistant principal, Ramón Dawkins, instead of DuBearn.

DuBearn could not be reached for comment Thursday.

"Ms. Ravelo takes full responsibility for the mistake. She apologized to Mrs. DuBearn on Tuesday,'' Orjeda said.

Sheyla Diaz, a teacher, was supposed to be a role model for the students she taught.

Instead she scammed students in her school.

During a five-week span in the summer of 2008, Diaz opened or attempted to open 17 credit card accounts using seven different people's identities. Four of the identity theft victims were enrolled at Monarch High School while Diaz taught there.

Diaz, 44, pleaded guilty last Friday to a single count of identity theft. She resigned in January from her job as a social sciences teacher at Monarch High School in Coconut Creek.

The U.S. Postal Service caught on to Diaz's criminal behavior when numerous pieces of mail with different names started arriving at the Coral Springs apartment she shared with her boyfriend, court records show.

Now the former high school teacher faces up to five years in prison.

Update: In July 2010 Diaz was sentenced to six months on house arrest for stealing students' identities, admitting she filled out credit card applications using the names of former high school students. She resigned in January from her job as a social sciences teacher at Monarch High School in Coconut Creek.
Her time on house arrest will be followed by 2 1/2 years on probation.

The Sarasota County school's class pet arrived in an egg sac called a mermaid's purse, reports the Sarasota Herald Tribune.

Students named it Baithoven.

The baby cat shark is the first specimen teacher Katrin Rudge has hatched in her classroom. Now the students are learning much from their pet as they watch it grow.

They have discovered its fave food: shrimp, but not the kind with preservatives.

The students also track its growth — from 4 inches to 9 inches in its first six weeks.

PBS' Sharkland says cat sharks are generally small, usually less than 2.5 feet long, and have from 40 to more than 110 rows of teeth.

Since the shark is a non-native species it cannot be released into the sea when it outgrows its tank. The teacher hopes to find a larger tank to keep him permanently in the classroom.

FloriDUH Headquarter's question: Teacher, with all the invasive critters in Florida — currently over 500 non-native fish and wildlife species — why did you pick a cat shark?

Photo: Baithoven, a baby cat shark, glides along a tank beside his reflection Wednesday at Riverview High School in Sarasota County. The shark hatched in March from an egg sack in the school's marine science classroom. More FloriDUH

Cameron Lee Kage, 15, a student at Melbourne's Eau Gallie High School, was just one step away from completing the process for building a potentially deadly bomb, reports Florida Today.

Kage used packing material and a pipe to build the bomb, one of four bombs that 16-year-old Kage was plotting to use at the 2,000-student Melbourne campus, according to police. All he needed was some accelerant, such as gasoline.

But Kage wasn't very cagey -- he left a trail.

Kage, who played tuba with the campus concert band, had been under surveillance for weeks after being warned repeatedly about visiting bomb-building websites in the school library that described how to make a dry ice bomb and a pin grenade device, school administrators said, reports Florida Today.

Melbourne police arrested him Tuesday after he gave permission to a school resource officer to search both his book bag and locker.

The search yielded various hand tools, a firework, a brown trench coat, combat boots, four black plastic pipes and a written plan on using homemade bombs at the school.

MELBOURNE POLICE DEPARTMENT / May 11, 2010
Cameron Lee Kage, 16, is accused of bringing bomb-making supplies to his Brevard County high school with instructions and guides on how to do the most damage, police said.

Michael Jeffery Bowersock, an Okaloosa County school bus driver accused of spanking a 7-year-old girl’s bare buttocks, was sitting in jail for 100 days, reports the Northwest Florida Daily News.

His lawyer managed to spring him last Tuesday — on $100,000 bond.

The girl who Bowersock allegedly spanked told her mother that on more than one occasion he stopped his school bus, pulled down her pants and spanked her with his bare hand, according to the Northwest Florida Daily News.

Prosecutor Elissa Saavedra wanted to keep Bowersock in the "Big House," contending that he had acted from “a position of authority” to abuse children and deserved no bail.

Saavedra also said there are “several other child victims” of lewd and lascivious acts that allegedly were committed by Bowersock.

But she admits there is a problem: The state could present no testimony about those other crimes because “all of the witnesses are under 10.”

For years North Marion High students in Ocala had complained someone was stealing out of their lockers.

A student set a trap to catch the thief -- he put his cell phone in one of the lockers in an otherwise empty locker room.

The trap worked: the phone videotaped a veteran teacher going through student lockers.

About 20 minutes after students showed the phone recording to a school resource officer, Steven Simmons, the school gym teacher, was arrested.

Simmons, 49, admitted to stealing for years, taking some $400 so far this year, reports AP.

A school resource officer said the 24 minutes and 32 seconds long video showed Simmons enter one locker and search a pair of pants. He was also seen going into several lockers while the students were in the gym, reports Ocala.com

BARBARA HIJEK has spent the best years of her life doing news research in Florida, the most news-warpy place in the universe. She's still passed all her drug tests and remains Prozac free. Barbara graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in her hometown. Talk about culture shock! She is single and has lived in Fort Lauderdale for the past decade. Prior to that Barbara lived in Clearwater for a dozen years. Truly a bicoastal Floridian. And she still can't figure out which coast is wackier...